Don Diego Poeder

Don Diego Rivelino Alfredo Poeder (born 3 April 1972) is a former Dutch professional boxer. He is known as the only Dutch professional boxer that won a world title of a minor boxing organization as a professional undefeated.[1] After his pro debut in 1994, Poeder was undefeated for 21 consecutive boxing matches against limited opposition, never faced-off a championship fighter or even a top-ten ranked contender. His first, and subsequently last, championship bout for the IBO World Cruiserweight Title resulted in a 10-round knockout loss to American journeyman Robert Daniels.

Don Diego Poeder
Poeder in 2007
Statistics
Real name	Don Diego Rivelino Alfredo Poeder
Weight(s)	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Reach	78 in (198 cm)
Nationality	Dutch
Born	3 April 1972 (1972-04-03) (age 48) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	33
Wins	27
Wins by KO	20
Losses	6
Draws	0
Medal record Men's amateur boxing Representing  Netherlands European Championships 1993 Bursa Heavyweight

Early life

Poeder was born on the 3rd of April 1972 in Rotterdam. He grew up in Spangen neighbourhood in Rotterdam and later moved to Westkruiskade same city.

At the age of 16 Poeder decides to embrace kickboxing and sought to join a kickboxing school in Rotterdam.

Amateur career

Poeder joined the kickboxing school "Silent Dragon Holland" in 1988 having as a trainer Enric Gunning, the bronze medal winner at the first world kickboxing championship W.A.K.O. World Championships in 1978.[2]

During his time at "Silent Dragon Holland" he realized that kickboxing was too demanding for his weak knees.[3] Poeder received later corrective surgery on his knee. Gunning sees the potential in Poeder and accepted to train him for boxing. His training here lasted until 1991. During this time Gunning organized 3 boxing matches for Poeder. Poeder fought in an amateur boxing competition in the heavyweight class.

Poeder ended up in the Hoboken boxing school (renamed Leon's Boxing Gym) [4]- school owned by former Dutch professional boxer Aad Jansen – triple Dutch champion at welterweight.[5] During his years at the Hoboken boxing school Poeder had the chance to train directly with the experienced Aad Jansen - his first official boxing trainer and Wim van Klaveren (brother of Bep van Klaveren - the only Dutch boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal [6]). Poeder remained for a period of 2 years at Hoboken boxing school with approximately 15 matches as amateur. While training at Hoboken, Poeder became the Dutch champion at amateur boxing, heavyweight category in 1992.

One year later in 1993 Poeder repeated his performance and won for the second time the Dutch title as an amateur at heavyweight category. This time Poeder trained at the boxing school Boxing'82 Rotterdam under the guidance of the trainer Frans van den Heerik.[7]

Poeder made his international debut in 1993 at European Amateur Boxing Championships in Bursa, Turkey and his performance resulted in a silver medal for The Netherlands. In the fight for the silver medal at the heavyweight category he knocked out Danny Williams in the first round.

In the same year Poeder participated at the 14th Copenhagen Cup - Copenhagen, Denmark - November 1993,[8] heavyweight class. During this championship, on November 26, 1993, Poeder scored a first round knockout victory over Wladimir Klitschko in the semifinals (being the only boxer to stop him in amateurs, before Ross Puritty repeated Poeder's successful performance over Klitschko in 1998, and the only boxer to ever stop him in the first round,) losing the finals to Juan Carlos Gómez.

Highlights

Copenhagen Cup, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 1993:

• 1/2: Defeated Wladimir Klitschko (Ukraine) RSC 1
• Finals: Lost to Juan Carlos Gómez (Cuba) 4–15

European Championships, Bursa, Turkey, September 1993:

• 1/8: Defeated Ion Mihai (Romania) RSC 1
• 1/4: Defeated Krzysztof Rojek (Poland) RSC 2
• 1/2: Defeated Danny Williams (England) KO 1
• Finals: Lost to Georgi Kandelaki (Georgia) 2–11

Professional career

After a successful 1993 and a titles-full amateurs period (double Dutch champion and silver medal at the European Championship) Poeder followed the advice of his friends (and professional boxers) Raymond Joval (“Halleluja”) and Regilio Benito Tuur (“Turbo”) and went to the United States to train for a two-month period. In the United States Poeder trained at the Gleason's gym in New York a boxing gym with tradition located in Brooklyn. Some of the fighters who trained at the Gleason’s gym include Jake LaMotta, Roberto Durán, Benny "Kid" Paret, Paulie Malignaggi, Gerry Coone, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.

Soon after his arrival in Rotterdam Poeder was followed by the famous boxing manager Stan Hoffman – known for training several world champions, among them: James Toney, Hasim Rahman, Michael Bentt, Lucia Rijker and, later, Poeder. Hoffman met Poeder in Dudok in Rotterdam in a very informal sphere and on a table napkin drew what became Poeder’s professional boxing career.

Poeder accepted a move to the United States, with Hoffman as trainer and aiming for a career as a pro. His professional boxing debut takes place in 1994 at the Rotterdam Ahoy. The fight was in the cruiserweight class in the professional boxing league - the weightclass where Poeder fought as a professional for the rest of his boxing career. Poeder won the fight at the Ahoy by KO in the third round against Ken Woods.

The match in Rotterdam was the first of 21 undefeated boxing matches for Poeder. From one winning to another between 1994 and 1997 Poeder climbed the stairs of success culminating in winning the World Boxing Union (Original 1995-2004) cruiserweight title on the 15th of June 1997.

Poeder knocked Terry Ray out in the third round winning the fight through a technical knock-out (TKO).[9]

The TKO and the KO were Poeder’s characteristic way of winning a fight during his career as a pro. According to official records Poeder won during his professional boxing career an overwhelming 80% of his fights through TKO or KO. The distribution of these techniques in the won fights is 50% (TKO) -50% (KO).

The city of Rotterdam acknowledged Poeder’s performance and handed him the title of Rotterdam’s Sportsman of the year 1997.[10]

Poeder successfully defended the World Boxing Union cruiserweight title confirming once again his world champion position.

In 1998 Poeder faced a period of decline in his boxing career and lost his first professional fight while competing for the vacant International Boxing Organization World cruiserweight title.

Poeder was not seen again in the boxing ring from 1999 and until 2004. He won 3 major fights in a row, culminating with the Dutch cruiserweight title on the 10th of September 2005.

Although this was not the official end of DPoeder’s boxing career the fights that followed the Dutch cruiserweight title were title-less fights and with a local rather than international status (took place in The Netherlands or Belgium).[11]

His official retiring match took place in 2016.

Professional record

Date	Opponent	Opp Record	Location	Result	Method
18/04/1994	Ken Woods	0 1 0	Rotterdam Ahoy Sportpaleis, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	KO
02/06/1994	Chuck Miller	debut	Huntington Hilton Hotel, Melville, New York, USA	W	KO
26/08/1994	Alonzo Hollis	1 1 0	Ballys Park Place Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	W	PTS
24/09/1994	Dimitri Ostraiano	debut	Rotterdam Ahoy Sportpaleis, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	KO
23/01/1995	Lajos Erős	6 3 1	World Trade Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	PTS
09/03/1995	Francisco Borja	1 1 0	Martinihal, Groningen, Netherlands	W	KO
17/06/1995	LaVelle Stanley	4 10 0	Performing Arts Theater, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA	W	TKO
21/07/1995	Wesley Martin	3 2 2	Harrah's Casino, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA	W	UD
16/09/1995	Jules Pierre	debut	Sportcentrum Valkenhuizen, Arnhem, Netherlands	W	KO
06/10/1995	Tony Booth	18 29 6	Waregem, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium	W	TKO
23/12/1995	Karoly Kovacs	2 4 0	RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands	W	TKO
28/02/1996	Domingo Monroe	8 4 0	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA	W	KO
01/04/1996	Franck Guilmot	9 5 0	Sporthal Maaspoort, Den Bosch, Netherlands	W	TKO
03/06/1996	Rund Kanika	13 9 1	Indoorsportcentrum, Eindhoven, Netherlands	W	KO
09/08/1996	Gary Durr	3 3 1	Casino Magic, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, USA	W	TKO
17/12/1996	John Andrade	19 1 0	World Trade Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	TKO
04/02/1997	Lenzie Morgan	14 19 3	World Trade Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	PTS
12/04/1997	John Kiser	10 15 2	Tropicana Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	W	TKO
15/06/1997	Terry Ray	34 4 0	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA	W	TKO
26/09/1997	Courtney Butler	17 2 1	Claridge Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	W	UD
08/02/1998	Terry Porter	10 2 1	Harrah's Casino, Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA	W	UD
05/05/1998	Robert Daniels	37 3 1	Grand Casino, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA	L	KO
29/01/1999	Sajad Abdul Aziz	11 6 4	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA	L	TKO
08/05/2004	Petr Horacek	7 7 2	Topsportcentrum, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	KO
26/03/2005	Kostyantyn Pryziuk	10 9 1	Topsportcentrum, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	TKO
10/09/2005	John Keeton	25 12 0	Topsportcentrum, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	KO
25/12/2005	Ismail Abdoul	25 9 1	Sporthal, Izegem, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium	L	UD
23/04/2006	Ismail Abdoul	26 9 1	't Kuipke, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium	L	UD
02/06/2007	Andre Janssens	5 0 0	IJssporthal, Tilburg, Netherlands	L	KO
08/10/2007	Yaroslav Zavorotnyi	8 2 0	Theater Carré, Amsterdam, Netherlands	L	TKO
29/04/2012	Daniil Peretyatko	17 30 0	Topsportcentrum, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	TKO
26/05/2014	Edgars Kalnars	25 28 0	Topsportcentrum, Rotterdam, Netherlands	W	UD
14/12/2014	Ivan Tomo	debut	Sporthal Drenkwaard, Zuidland, Netherlands	W	KO

Charity

In 2014 Poeder organized together with Nouchka Fontijn an open training session for boxing fans. The revenue of this training was donated to the 3FM Serious Request cause.[12] In 2012 he trained in the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam Frank – a fan of Poeder with a critical lung condition [13] In 2007 Poeder attended the Global edition of Dancing with the stars dancing contest.[14]

References

1. "Official Boxing Records". BoxRec. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
2. Gunning, Enric. "Kickboxing School Rotterdam". Silent Dragon Holland. Silent Dragon Holland. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
3. Ligtenberg, Lucas (27 December 1994). "Don Diego Poeder, een baby met gebrek aan killers-instinct". NRC. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
4. Jansen, Leon. "Leon's Boxing Gym - Over ons". Leon's Boxing Gym. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
5. "Oud-bokser Aad Jansen (75) overleden". RTV Rijmond. RTV Rijnmond Website. 11 December 2016.
6. BoxRec. "Boxing Records". BoxRec. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
7. MARKUS, NIELS (31 August 2013). "De boksschool slaagt waar de wijk faalt". Trouw. Trouw Website. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
8. "14.Copenhagen Cup - Copenhagen, Denmark - November 1993". Amateur Boxing. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
9. "Bokser Don Diego Poeder slaat zich naar de wereldtitel". NRC. 16 June 1997.
10. GEMEENTE ROTTERDAM, Municipality of Rotterdam. "WINNAARS SPORT AWARDS 1986 – 2015". RotterdamSport.nl. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
11. "Bokser Poeder kan het nog". De Telegraaf. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
12. Rooymans, Marleen (6 December 2014). "Unieke bokstraining Don Diego Poeder en Nouchka Fontijn". Boxsen.nl. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
13. Erasmus Medisch Centrum Rotterdam. "Patiënt deelt rake klappen uit". ErasmusMC Nieuws. 29 August 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
14. ANP (22 December 2007). "Rodrigo Otazu wint Global Dancing With The Stars". NU. Retrieved 2 April 2017.

External links

• Boxing record for Don Diego Poeder from BoxRec